Andrzej Sapkowski proved once again that video games are not his main port of interest, to put it lightly. In a Q&A session at the biggest Polish fantasy and sci-fi convention - Polcon - he spoke quite harshly about the players and developers.
The first one "under fire" during the Q&A session was Adrian Chmielarz [the Painkiller and Bulletstorm guy], who - along with his Metropolis Software studio - worked in 1997 on the first adaptation of the adventures of Geralt.
The writer mentions that - in contrast to the CD Project works - he never even got the finished product. It would be hard to do so though, since this game has never seen the light of day.
- Well then I'm not even sorry - said Sapkowski, when the person asking a question drew attention to this fact. The author also accused Metropolis of on paying any money for the rights to the Witcher. Chmielarz quickly denied this on Facebook: "You got the money" - he wrote.
During the Q&A at Polcon, the author also raised the subject of other adaptations.
- I do quite often penetrate Russian websites, because you can pirate there without much effort - Sapkowski said a moment later, talking about a Witcher musical from Russia. - You need to be able to write the Cyrillic alphabet.
- The movie, no matter the quality of it, and I seen worse, significantly raised sales of the books - he added, starting the CD Projekt topic. - The game did similar.
- The word started to spread. I don't know who promoted it, probably CD Projekt itself, that were it not for the game, I would've never seen a translation [of the books] in western Europe - he explained. - All my translations were much earlier than the game. This game used my popularity, and not the other way around.
- The game has caused me a lot of shit and stink - Sapkowski addes. - Foreign publishers began using graphics from the game on the covers. People rejected the book, saying that it is not new, it's game-related.
- Like a book written for the game, which we see plenty of, especially in the fantasy genre. Fans in Europe began to reject my books. I had to fight some hard battles to prove who was first. The game messed up a lot, a lot - he explained.
It's worth mentioning that the translations in Western Europe and - especially - the United States consisted mostly of the short stories written by Sapkowski. The interest in the "proper" five-book saga started after the success of Witcher 3 and with enormous marketing expenditures of CD Project.
"The Last Wish" book even managed to feature on The New York Times bestseller list. With graphics from the game on the cover.
Sapkowski acknowledges that the success of CD Projekt's games helped create an influx of readers, but eventually the pros and cons were on equal level, as a large group of people might not wanted to read books "based on a game".
- It's 50/50. Let's face it, there was a certain group, which has become a target group for my books only after playing the game - Sapkowski admits.
- I agree, there was that group. But when I start to compare with the target group taht dropped out because they said they will not read books written "based on a game" I do not know whether it will not come out to be fifty-fifty.
-But I don't cry, I don't spit that my books were destroyed by the game. You should get used to it and don't treat the weeping willow and cows as the same thing. The book are book, literature is literature. Games, comics, movies are only adaptations.
Speaking of adaptations, Sapkowski also touched on the film created by Tomasz Bagiński, but didn't wanted to reveal any details.
- And I even know who could possibly play the witcher, but you will not tell! - he joked. - The actor applied himself, he wasn't asked. I don't know, maybe he played the game.
A little bit later in the Q&A, Sapkowski decided to give his opinion on gamers in general.
- If I ever come up with an idea for a sequel to Witcher, and I'm not saying I won't, with story happening much, much later, do you think I will look at what happened in the game? And why should I care? - he asked.
- Especially since you don't know what happened in the game - said a lady leading the Q&A.
- Especially since I don't know. I can ask someone. I know some people who played these games, but not too many. I tend to associate with intelligent people - he concluded.
